When we decided to tap into the collective genius of our team members through an internal innovation program, we had no idea where it would take us. Our first project officially launches today for customers in the United States with the release of an ultra-thin laptop loaded with Ubuntu Linux (and we’re working on some cloud launching tools).

We’re super excited about the XPS 13 Laptop, Developer Edition, and want to thank all the developers who have been actively participating in helping us create a laptop designed specifically for them. Basically, we loaded a super sleek Dell machine with Ubuntu to give developers the essentials they want while staying true to our core values of openness and affordability. But the power of the community input really helped make this a big success.

Barton George is our internal developer advocate who came up with the Sputnik idea. We like his left-of-center-customer-centric thinking. His idea was to take the highly-mobile and powerful XPS computer and target it at developers. He’s pretty insistent on the idea that developers are the kings of IT and set the agenda for web companies, who in turn, set the agenda for the whole industry. We listened. He’s also a tireless blogger (maybe you follow him?), and has been keeping everyone up to date as we took project Sputnik from a pilot to product in less than six months. Michael Coté is another one of our favorite innovative thinkers – he’s always got some DevOps strategy going to keep Dell real and relevant to markets that we are keen to serve.

So I could go on about how great this product works for our target developer market, but it’s really much more credible reading comments directly from users anyway. (There’s lots more great reviews and comments on Barton’s blog).

“When I learned about project Sputnik I was excited, I have long felt the Linux laptop experience has been weak. This is the first Linux powered laptop that I feel is amazing! It is a very powerful and beautiful machine; I still get people asking me "what laptop is that." Maybe I am vain, but it feels good. When a fellow Linux freak sees Ubuntu running they are very impressed with the whole package.

I am a Ph.D. student and spend massive amounts of time developing software. Currently I am doing lots of Apache, Python, Django, Android development using GIT and all of that nice stuff. This machine has been solid, the experience a pleasure, and months after getting my XPS 13 I am still very very happy…..Overall I would give this system a 9 out of 10, and I really, really, really hope that Dell continues with it. I think targeting developers and creating amazing machines running Linux is a smart thing for dell to do.”

Speaking of Barton George and Michael Coté, here’s a video from them discussing today’s news, and a bit of what you can expect with the XPS 13 developer edition:

For everyone who helped make today possible, thanks for helping us serve you better. You are the reason that Dell exists, and we try never to forget that. When you succeed, so do we.